Effects of the Drop-set and Reverse Drop-set Methods on the Muscle Activity and Intramuscular Oxygenation of the Triceps Brachii among Trained and Untrained Individuals

Masahiro Goto; Shinsuke Nirengi; Yuko Kurosawa; Akinori Nagano; Takafumi Hamaoka

Effects of the Drop-set and Reverse Drop-set Methods on the Muscle Activity and Intramuscular Oxygenation of the Triceps Brachii among Trained and Untrained Individuals

J Sports Sci Med. 2016 Dec 1;15(4):562-568. eCollection 2016 Dec.

Authors

Masahiro Goto¹, Shinsuke Nirengi², Yuko Kurosawa³, Akinori Nagano⁴, Takafumi Hamaoka³

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Sport and Health Science, Ritsumeikan University, Japan; Department of Physical Therapy, Aino University, Japan.
² Division of Preventive Medicine, Clinical Research Institute, National Hospital Organization Kyoto Medical Center , Kyoto, Japan.
³ Department of Sports Medicine for Health Promotion, Tokyo Medical University , Japan.
⁴ Graduate School of Sport and Health Science, Ritsumeikan University , Japan.

PMID: 27928200
PMCID: PMC5131208

Abstract

Influence of different load exercise to muscle activity during subsequent exercise with 75% of one repetition maximum (RM) load among trained and untrained individuals was verified. Resistance-trained men who were involved in resistance training (n = 16) and healthy young men who did not exercise regularly (n = 16) were recruited for this study. Each subject performed bench pressing with a narrow grip exercise using two different training set methods, the drop-set (DS) (3 sets × 2-10 repetitions with 95-75% of 1RM) and the reverse drop-set (RDS) (3 sets × 3-10 repetitions with 55-75% of 1RM). The mean concentric contraction power, root mean square (RMS) of electromyography (EMG), area under the oxygenated hemoglobin (Oxy-Hb) curve, and time constant for muscle oxygen consumption (TcVO_2mus) values of the triceps brachii were measured during and after the DS and RDS. The trained group demonstrated significantly higher mean muscle power (242.9 ± 39.6 W vs. 215.8 ± 31.7 W), RMS of EMG (86.4 ± 10.4 % vs. 68.3 ± 9.6 %), and area under the Oxy-Hb curve (38.6 ± 7.4 %• sec vs. 29.3 ± 5.8 %• sec) values during the DS than during the RDS (p < 0.05). However, in the untrained group none of the parameters differed significantly for both the DS and RDS. Furthermore, a negative correlation was detected between the area under the Oxy-Hb curve and muscle thickness (r = -0.51, p < 0.01). Long-term effects of DS on muscle strengthening and hypertrophy will be explored in further research.

Keywords: Drop-set; NIRS; hypertrophy; hypoxia; resistance exercise.